i have run out of earl grey tea. sure, i can use another tea, my sister gave me some wonderful sassafrass, but my dear earl grey is gone. and no simple walk to the store will replace him, either, as he was loose and free and not confined in a bag. but there is now a tea store in SLC (alas, not mine) and i will venture there today, in search of another loose earl grey.

i made soup last night. summer must be over. and, in looking at the calendar (if you are into that kind of thing), it is.

“fall has officially begun” i comment to my compatriate in soup-eating, who wishes to remain anonymous for reasons that will soon reveal themselves.

“huh?” my compratiate (from now on refered to as CP) inquires.

“well, it’s the 22nd, fall has started”

“is autumn already over?” CP asks.

“um, no, it’s just started. it won’t be over until december, the equinox, december 21st”

“but doesn’t autumn come before fall?”

yes, my dear CP had always thought that fall and autumn were two seperate seasons and had wondered why we would have two seasons in the same time period covered by just one for the rest of the year. he then said that he was glad he had found out the truth with me, because it could have been really embarrassing had it been around someone else. Which is why i am sharing

unless it is The House of Sand and Fog. Filled with characters that are multi-faceted. Characters that you do not think you can like, and then you find yourself doing exactly that. Sorrow and despair as deep as in real life. A movie that will cure you of any optimism you may have been feeling and set you straight: Ripping out your heart with pain as you sense the inevitable and you watch the rug being pulled out yet again.

Hero is not like real life. It is much better than that. it is the pain that comes with understanding, a pain we would be lucky to feel.

this is the first time i’ve done sleeves, so i am pretty happy with the whole thing. anyway, here are my comments and changes to the original pattern:

1. i knit the fronts and back as one piece, instead of 3, and decreased the cast on amount sum by 4 stitches to account for the seams that would not be there. i also decreased the cast-off at the armholes by one per direction (4 total)
2. i knit both sleeves at the same time, using one needle and two balls of yarn, flat. i was not up to adjusting the pattern to knit in the round at that point.
3. i used invisible grafting on reverse stockinette to join the sleeves together
4. i joined the sleeves to the body using matress sitch

i am pretty happy with it. it always is so cool to finish something!

let me start by saying: The Roof is Done!
and let me follow up by also mentioning: The Roof is Done!
have i mentioned that the roof is done?
now, this is not my roof. it is SOP’s roof. and yet i have spent more time on it that nearly any other roof in my entire life. it has been the direct object of all my weekend sentences for about 7 weeks and i am very thrilled to have it be the subject of this final sentence: the roof is done!